They needed a nurse, so Shelly Sims said ‘Yes’

Riding in the back of an army truck, traveling into the heart of Haiti, Shelly Sims was starting to wonder what she’d gotten herself into.

Allen Bartlett, pastor of Gallatin First Baptist, had recommended the missionary trip to her.

“It wasn’t on my A list of places to go,” said Shelly, an R.N. at the Daviess County Health Department. “But they needed a nurse. I told myself ‘I can do this.'”

The truck strained down a dirt road. They passed desperately poor villages.

“They said I should be scared. People would jump in the truck to steal my watch. I never felt threatened. But I made sure I was never alone.”

Medicine men sat at the base of voodoo flags in the little towns.

“They’d put spells on you,” said Shelly. “You could get treated for what ails you that way.”

The Charles Chapman evangelistic association has been making the missionary trip into Haiti twice a year for the past 25 years. Of the 40 people in Shelly’s group, only five (including Shelly) had not been there at least once before.

Along the route, the group split up into smaller work crews. One crew was dropped off at an orphanage. Another crew would build an entire church from the bottom up.

Shelly’s group traveled deeper into the forest and higher into the mountains. Shelly was one of two nurses in the medical team of six women and one man.

After 17 hours, the group reached their destination – a remote village where they would set up base. The villagers were required to provide for the group’s minimal needs.

“They let us move in and take over. The church they gave us was the only building with a concrete floor. They built a twig building. They even built us a new outhouse.”

Despite the warm welcome, a sense of isolation began to sink in.

“We wouldn’t be able to call home for two weeks,” says Shelly. “I couldn’t even find out who won the super bowl.”

In case of emergency, the group could contact the American embassy. To bring word from home, someone would have to make the long drive up into the mountains.

“We were out of touch with the whole world.”

Provided with an interpreter, the team set up their clinic and waited for the patients to arrive.

“There was no good way to get there to see us except to walk,” says Shelly.

And so they did – 1500 of them traveling by foot 10 to 15 miles. They came with the usual complaints, headaches, backaches, coughs, high blood pressure.

“We treated whole families for worms.”

Many of the Haitians suffered from skin diseases due to the climate and poor hygiene. The nurses made up their own ointment with crisco, betadine and cortizone.

“It treated them quite well,” said Shelly. “We did the best with what we had.”

The clinic charged seven cents, or one Haitian gourd. The Haitian’s believe free medicine is not good medicine.

Patients were given Tylenol, cough syrup and antibiotics for the really sick. There was no medicine to treat the critically ill. The Missionary Medical Clinic was 10 miles down the road – five hours by foot. The clinic charge 30 dollars for surgery.

“To get a tooth pulled cost three dollars and they didn’t have three dollars.”

The church had given the team money for food and medicine. They paid for the worst cases to have their surgery.

One woman came to the medical team claiming to be pregnant – for two-and-a-half years.

“She looked pregnant,” said Shelly. “In reality it was a huge, huge tumor.”

Efforts to explain the real cause were met with resistance by the natives.

“The Haitians believe conception is magical. They believe your spirit is carried in your mother’s belly for years. A woman can be pregnant on and on. It goes back to Satanism.”

The clinic made an appointment for the woman with a doctor at the clinic.

“We didn’t see very many old people,” says Shelly. “Some of the babies won’t be there when we go back.”

Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere. While all Haiti is poor the mountains are the poorest, with the least resources and the least infrastructure.

The little village where the team stayed held about 20 houses with about 100 people.

Some of the men eked out a living farming. The mothers stayed home with their babies. There were a few little shops in the village but not much to buy.

Shelly discovered that the people weren’t lazy – there just weren’t any jobs.

There was no heat in the mountain village, no electricity and no running water.

“Church members went with a donkey to haul our water from a stream. We were the only group to have a cold shower.”

Water was carried in a canteen. There was no drinkable water. The villagers drank the same water they bathed in.

Before the week was up, the medical team began running short of choice food.

“We cooked over charcoal,” says Shelly. “But we mostly ate canned meats. I learned to eat Spam. The villager’s supper might be cornmeal mush.”

The group’s food shortage seemed a small matter in a village where the people were starving.

“We were told they were better fed this year than previous years. They looked pretty hungry to us. They would beg for our food. I’ve never done without food and to see people actually starving – it made me glad to be an American. You really don’t understand that you have plenty until you see others who have nothing.”

Some of the villagers had a few animals which were kept tied up. Even the chickens were kept on a leash. A “wealthy” family might have one pig, one goat and two chickens.

They kept no pets. Pets had to be fed.

“The villagers might have a cat for a mouser,” said Shelly. “Or sometimes dinner.”

Gas cost eight dollars a gallon. Most Haitians can’t afford vehicles.

“After we were dropped off, we didn’t see another vehicle for nine days.”

The villagers tried to accommodate their guests. Still, living conditions were primitive.

“I didn’t see any mountain lions or snakes,” said Shelly. “Just wild pigs. The scorpions and the spiders were the worse. I had a spider the size of a saucer go past my bed.”

For Shelly, the real shock came when she found rats in her bed.

“I would have walked home if I could have. I had to rent a cat. I tied the cat to the foot of my bed at night and it slept on my bed. The cat took care of the rats. The others made fun of me, but I didn’t have any more critters in my bed.”

Nights seemed long for the Americans.

“We had church in the evening. Then we went to bed. There was nothing else to do. There was no electricity. I could read by flashlight but then I’d wear the batteries out.”

At night, voodoo drums would beat a steady tattoo not far from the village.

“It was the same rhythm, like a chant.”

Just how pervasive Voodooism is in Haiti became clear to the visitors one Sunday service.

“An ogre tried to get people to follow him away,” said Shelly. “He was dressed up head to toe in a fuzzy mask and wild hair, blowing a whistle, shaking a noise maker, jumping up and down.”

The Voodoo Ogre made some in the group nervous. Shelly was mostly just curious.

“It happened during the day. I wouldn’t want to have met him at night.”

During their stay, the medical group took a tour of the orphanage at the base of the mountain where three people took care of 185 children.

“The older children took care of the little ones,” said Shelly. “In a way they were the more fortunate children in Haiti. They were given three meals a day and clothes and went to school. The orphanage would help try to find them jobs. It’s impossible to imagine a situation like that in America.”

Shelly found out that you have to take your own person to care for you at the hospital, as well as provide for your own food. She saw no medical equipment newer than 50 years old.

“You don’t want to get sick there.”

The missionary group provided a hygiene class for about 200. Some 400 attended a Bible school In addition the group gave away a ton of food.

“Mostly rice and beans seasoned with onions and tomatoes. They hauled it off on the backs of donkeys.”

Despite all their hardships, Shelly found the villagers to be courageous people.

“They take life one day at a time,” said Shelly. “They’re happy people. They want better, but they’ve accepted their condition. They don’t sit around crying and wishing for more. They make do.”

The Haitians were dedicated Christians.

“It was a moving experience, seeing over 20 people saved. They wrote their own songbooks. They would beg for a Bible. They were so poor, but they had such a Christian spirit. There was nothing they wouldn’t do that was in their power to do. They gave us everything they had.”

On the day of their departure, the villagers held a prayer service for the group’s safety. As they were leaving, Shelly reflected on her experience.

“I didn’t know what to expect. I thought I was tough. But I’m not as tough as I thought I was. I was glad to come down from the mountains.”

Upon reaching civilization, the first thing Shelly did was indulge in an ice cream bar and a diet Dr. Pepper.

“I thought I’d gone to heaven.”

Shelly returned to America on Feb. 8, after 15 days.

“Haiti was another world,” she said. “I thought I would make a good pioneer. I wouldn’t have made a good one at all. Once you go, you can’t help but get a heart for all those people who have nothing and no way to get it. I’m glad I went. It made me appreciate what I’ve got a whole lot more. When I got back, people would ask me if I had a good time. I told them, ‘No. It was terrible. But we did real good work.'”

One of the girls in the group told Shelly she would pray her back.

“I probably will go back. If I can get past that 17 hour trip and rats in my bed. I’ll go again. But you really do feel good when you’re done.”

For people who are interested in a missionary trip, Shelly can provide them with the information. Not just nurses are needed. Building crews, cooks and those with Bible class skills are also needed. Those who feel led to do it, should contact Shelly.